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Topic: Shortening Church Services?? (Read 8786 times)

Issues of length of services are not new or novel to North America. There were two changes to the Greek Typikon in the 19th century that were done to shorten the services (like not seeing the beatitudes during the liturgy, moving the reading of the gospel towards the end of Orthros so people will be around to hear it to name a couple). Today, our services in NA tend to be shorter than they are in the "old country" (at least for Greeks and Antiochians), we have pews to sit in and we still complain and come late for the services. This really throws me off. It's like my Greek brothers and sisters who complain of the relatively quick 1hr 15 min Liturgy (which they never make until the Little Entrance) and then go to the Greek monastery and stand for hours and say it was great.

I think current Greek and Antiochian parish "abbreviations" are enough as found in most parishes. (Let the monasteries keep the full services to show us how it is done) I also agree that the extra memorials, prayers etc. can be a little much and that some minor changes can keep the flow of the service. This requires judgement and discernment from the priest and bishop.

I'm sorry if I won't sound too excited about shortening a commitment to God that it, at its longest, 1/56 of the week (3 hours).

Having grown up with children around, not all of them have to be near-ADHD during services. If from a young age they are exposed to the whole service, then they'll be able to take it. The kids that come regularly to Sunday services at Holy Cross Chapel, for example, don't get the shortest service, and a few of them are brought in halfway during Matins. Guess what happens when Holy Week comes? They can handle the lengthened serves in stride, no worse than we do.

When people drop off their kids at church Sunday morning and then go out for coffee, however (yes, it happens... I've seen it) then of course the kids will become fidgety in the services - they've gotten there late, never been on time, so the Liturgy seems like forever.

I see this all as being assisted by the short-attention-span culture we've promoted here. It's not the cause, but it's giving quite a boost to the difficulties with standing through Liturgy.

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I also don't believe the services need to be shortened. Some could argue that the St. John Chrysostom Liturgy was an abbreviation of the St. Basil's Liturgy, which in turn was an abbreviation of the proto-liturgy of St. James. I believe that we do not have legitimate reasons to abbreviate the Liturgy further. Proponents of abbreviated Liturgies usually follow the tenets of modernism, which is the spiritual captivity of the Church to Western Culture. To give a practical analogy, if your foot is ailing, you wouldn't just quickly dip it in some water. You would let it soak. If children keep getting distracted away from the Liturgy with Sunday School, cry-room time, or simply being allowed by their exasperated parents to run around outside and play, these crutches will never allow them to grow in the liturgical life of the Church. You don't have to be your kid's pal. There is a time to be stern when they get out of line in Church. I disciplined my daughter when she was very little for disruptions during Liturgy, and now she's one of the best behaved kids in Church (of course, I may be a bit biassed.

I pray that you continue to post with the true 'Orthodox' insight needed on this website.

Thanks for your post.

And God bless you and your family.

It appears that you are raising your children in an Orthodox 'way' of raising; teaching them the rigors of the true worship while they are formative as we all should be doing and wanting to do for our children and our loved ones.

Orthodoxy is a way of life. The liturgy is our heritage a way to stay on line with our faith. The earlier we learn the better.

We teach our kids all kinds of things to put them "ahead" of the pack (if you will) in this world. But Christian fortitude seems to be something that comes with convenience. At lease for some. Maybe for too many.

The scripture teaches: O my brethren love not the world; neither the things that are in the world. For the world is passing away and the lust thereof for all is passing.

So many people on this thread need good Orthodox points of view like your. Myself included.

Ok, at this parish I sometimes go to and learn to chant at, the liturgy is "shortened" by not doing the small litany in between the "through the prayers of the Theotokos" and "Save us o Son of God" which is a repetition of "help us save us....rememebering our most..."

---no ending there...neways as a result, the liturgy is about an hour long instead of 3. I like the 3 hour liturgies but its just hard when the litle kids give such a hard time. I sometimes think they won't like church at all and would stop coming all together when older because they remembered long services. Although what mosty parents want is for their children to love the liturgy.

In my opinion, there is no need to make our liturgies shorter. Current Greek and Antiochian practice is good enough forÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š none-monastic Divine Liturgies.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š For example, in Greek and Antiochian churches we chant for the First Antiphon: "Thru the intercessions of the Theotokos," instead of Psalm 102: "Bless the Lord, o my Soul...."

A Liturgy with one celebrant, no deacon, choir, no homily, no one receiving holy communion, should take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Let us add maximum of 10m for theÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š homily,ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š 20m for communion. Greek/Antiochian liturgy should take at least approx. 1hr30- to 1hr40m.

Here is a the order of the Liturgy with the approximate time for each part.

In my opinion, there is no need to make our liturgies shorter. Current Greek and Antiochian practice is good enough forÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š none-monastic Divine Liturgies.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š For example, in Greek and Antiochian churches we chant for the First Antiphon: "Thru the intercessions of the Theotokos," instead of Psalm 102: "Bless the Lord, o my Soul...."

A Liturgy with one celebrant, no deacon, choir, no homily, no one receiving holy communion, should take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š Let us add maximum of 10m for theÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š homily,ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š 20m for communion. Greek/Antiochian liturgy should take at least approx. 1hr30- to 1hr40m.

Here is a the order of the Liturgy with the approximate time for each part.

Actually, statistically, young people are more "religious" than anyone else. Of course, they might just appear "religious" because their parents make them go to church or something, I don't know. Still, I've read that when they measure the religiosity of people, the highest level is in children and early teens, then the level starts to drop dramatically in the mid to late teens and early twenties, and then somewhat levels off with a small decline for the next fifty or sixty years, at which point there is a slight increase again in old age.

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I recently visited an Antiochian friend at his parish, and their Bishop now has them:

1) combine some litanies so there are not as many "Lord, have mercies"2) Omit even the 4 litanies before the Lord's prayer.3) Postpone signing "We praise the, we bless the" till the prayer that follows "Changing them by thy Holy Spirit"

I recently visited an Antiochian friend at his parish, and their Bishop now has them:

1) combine some litanies so there are not as many "Lord, have mercies"2) Omit even the 4 litanies before the Lord's prayer.3) Postpone signing "We praise the, we bless the" till the prayer that follows "Changing them by thy Holy Spirit"

It was awful and confusion.ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š What is up with that?

Basil

Perhaps their Bishop has a greater understanding of the Spiritual Needs of His Flock than a random outside observer; I'm sure that the service sounds perfectly natural and is spiritually uplifting to the community in question.

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Our head Priests during the most recent clergy meeting had to discuss the fact that after the Liturgy which is already 3 hours typically; longer on feast days making the worship service longer. Yes! longer.

Seems that people are lingering around after service and BIble study.

The Clergy is looking for ways to usefully use the time people linger to include worship elements.

Not likely that Ethiopian Churches will be shortening the services at any forseable future.

Well, if you want to keep the little ones entertained, you could always do what the people in my church do, just let your kids run around in the Narthex for the entire service. It seems to work, the kids are quiet and there hasn't been any major disruption of any kind so far....

It's my experience that this is particularly true when the weekly visit to Church is the only expression of the family's Orthodoxy and the family church does not exist.

So then it goes back to the family...which makes perfect sense. I'm thinking of the early Christian martyrs. They couldn't necessarily rely on a daily or weekly or even monthly 'supply' of church-going to nurture them spiritually because of persecution. I remember reading a story of Marina the Great Martyr and how she could not go to church with her other (adoptive) sisters living in the same house as her, so the 'mother' would take the dangerous trip to and fro the church and tell the girls what the feast day and homily was about. Thats kind of sad that many of our eastern orthodox churches, oca, greek, even other churches likes coptic, and catholic are full of old ppl or somewhat-empty most of the year. I wonder how the church will be in 50 or 100 years time...empty/closed down parishes or parishes which barely survive because ppl are 'forced' to come just to keep the church alive.

Well, if you want to keep the little ones entertained, you could always do what the people in my church do, just let your kids run around in the Narthex for the entire service. It seems to work, the kids are quiet and there hasn't been any major disruption of any kind so far....

-Nick

Or you could do what they did in a parish that I once attended . . . let the kids run around the nave. My 3 year old (at that time, he's 4 now) kept asking us why the kids are running around.Â I guess Î“Î¹Î±Î³Î¹Î± & Î Î±Ï€Ï€Î¿Ï… taught him well.Â He would sit through the entire Liturgy quieter than the adults sitting in the back talking about last night's ball game. The Altar boys would even poke and slap each other, make faces and laugh . . . and neither the priest, deacon or their parents ever spoke to them about it.

There were two changes to the Greek Typikon in the 19th century that were done to shorten the services (like not seeing the beatitudes during the liturgy, moving the reading of the gospel towards the end of Orthros so people will be around to hear it to name a couple).

My understanding is actually what the Patriarch of Constantinople did was formalize and codify changes that were already taking place in various places in a haphazard manner. I think the heart of the issue is that non monastic parish churches were struggling to maintain the monastic typikons which had come to predominate the liturgical life of the church. That is probably still the issue.

It may very well be that I am not fully Orthodox, but to be honest after about an hour and a half I start to lose focus (speaking of the normal weekly liturgy I should say). I know we should enjoy the liturgy if it went on for hours and hours, etc., but I know I couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t do it. My daughter can pretty much tolerate the full liturgy, but my son can only go so long. Having Sunday School after communion to me is a blessing, because they are both ready to do something different at that point. Often my wife or I will spend as much time corralling my son as we will following along with the service.